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Tim Bosma: More questions than answers as community mourns Ancaster father

Bosma was a 32-year-old churchgoing husband to his wife, Sharlene, father to a 2-year-old daughter and owner of a beloved Great Dane. After posting his truck online, he took two men for a test drive and never returned.

Clues were left scattered across the GTA for more than 100 police officers to find in the week since his disappearance, starting with his cellphone in Brantford, his car in Kleinburg and finally his badly burned body in Waterloo.

Many of those bread crumbs led to 27-year-old Dellen Millard, police alleged. He is the only suspect in custody after his arrest Saturday and is expected to be charged with first-degree murder on Wednesday.

Yet the discovery of Bosma’s body has only compounded the already confusing and difficult question: Why him?

Police insist Bosma
was the family man he was portrayed as
, devoid of a criminal record. They believe he was targeted, his car followed from his Ancaster home by another vehicle when he left for the test drive after 9 p.m. on May 6. But they’ve been unable to decipher a motive.

“It’s very raw,” said Pastor John Veenstra who preaches at Ancaster Christian Reformed Church, a squat brick building with a wrought-iron steeple where Bosma attended mass with his family since he was a little boy. “They’re devastated. Nobody wanted it to end like this.”

After a grassroots search online amassed thousands of followers, making the hashtag #FindTimBosma viral on Twitter, there was an absence of updates on Tuesday, replaced by an outpouring of condolences.

Peter Lowe, who has been speaking on behalf of the family, posted to a Facebook page that drew more than 40,000 to help search for Bosma.

“The agony in this house is indescribable,” he wrote.

The news of Bosma’s death has since reached beyond Hamilton, outside of the GTA and across the country.

The account for Prime Minister Stephen Harper tweeted to his followers: “My thoughts and prayers go out to Tim Bosma’s family during this difficult time.”

Premier Kathleen Wynne also tweeted: “My heart goes out to Tim Bosma’s family and friends. I can’t begin to understand this tragedy.”

Det.-Sgt. Matt Kavanagh, Hamilton police’s lead homicide investigator on the case, said he visited Bosma’s rural Ancaster home several times, where friends and family had gathered to mobilize the community and help online.

“The garage was full of people tweeting,” Kavanagh said. “It’s quite amazing just how much it’s touched our community.”

He said the online campaign helped in the hunt, with a dedicated officer combing social media responses for tips as they came in.

“I think it’s a terrible crime,” he said. “That’s why there’s so much media attention. Because this affects us all. It affects the entire community. It affects me as well.”

In Bosma’s quiet borough, that shared grief was on display Tuesday evening as flowers piled high at the end of the driveway outside his family home.

“It’s just so deeply saddening,” said neighbour Henry Mostert, who lives with his wife, Nancy, and their kids down the rolling country road flanked by fields and groves of leafy trees.

He described their faith-based neighbourhood as tight-knit. “It’s kind of like one person’s suffering is everybody’s suffering.”

But still, without answers, it’s hard to move on.

“You’re thankful for the closure, I suppose,” Nancy Mostert added. “And now begins the grieving. The whole community will grieve with them, definitely.”

With files from Alex Ballingall and Liam Casey

Timeline

May 6: Tim Bosma is last seen at his Ancaster home by his wife, Sharlene, before taking his black 2007 Dodge Ram pickup truck for a test drive with two men in their 20s, now suspects in his disappearance. A second vehicle is seen on video surveillance following in pursuit.

May 9: Sharlene Bosma makes a tearful plea for her husband’s return at Hamilton police headquarters. Later, police announce they have found Bosma’s cellphone at an industrial complex in Brantford.

May 11: Dellen Millard, 27, of Etobicoke is arrested on Cawthra Rd. and charged with forcible confinement and theft over $5,000.

May 12: Police find a trailer registered to Millard’s company parked at his mother’s home in Kleinburg. Bosma’s black pickup truck is found inside.

May 13: Police concentrate their search at the Waterloo Regional Airport hangar where Millard’s family aviation company is headquartered and a sprawling Waterloo farm owned by Millard.

May 14: Police announce Bosma’s badly burned body has been found and classify his death a homicide. Millard’s charges are expected to be upgraded to first-degree murder.

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